UK: Conservative Party under pressure after racist remarks from one of its major donors

Ten million pounds must be paid. Britain’s Conservative Party is under pressure Wednesday to return millions of pounds to one of its major donors accused of making racist remarks about a black opposition MP.

Businessman Frank Hester is accused of saying in 2019 that MP Diane Abbott made him “hate all black women” and that she should be “shot”. The comments were “racist,” Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted to questioning in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Frank Hester “has rightly apologized and that repentance must be accepted,” the head of government continued.

Ten million pounds

“Racism has no place in Britain and the government I lead is living proof of that,” insisted Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian descent. He is due to give a speech on extremism on Thursday.

The Labor Party, which is seen as the winner of legislative elections due before the end of the year, has called on the Conservatives to return the ten million pounds (11.70 million euros) donated by Frank. Esther.

“Rude” comments

“Is the Prime Minister proud to be funded by someone who makes racist and misogynistic comments? asked Labor Party leader Keir Starmer in the House of Commons. “If Rishi Sunak had the guts, he would give this money back today,” Labor MP Jonathan Ashworth also told Sky News.

Rishi Sunak, however, suggested he would not return the money to Frank Hester, chairman of software company Phoenix Partnership. Frank Hester admitted making “rude” comments about Diane Abbott but said they had “nothing to do with her sex or the color of her skin.”

Diane Abbott was the first black woman to sit in the House of Commons when she was elected in 1987. In April she was suspended from the Labor Party for a letter she wrote about racism: she suggested that the Jews and Irish on the trip were “certainly victims of prejudice” but had “not been subject to racism all their lives”, unlike blacks.